Kōvilar (temple people).—The name adopted by a section of Pallis or Vanniyans, who wear the sacred thread, and have temples of their own, in which they worship. Kōil Adiyān (temple servant) has been returned by some Balijas at times of census. Kōvilammamar or Kōilpat, denoting ladies of, or those who live in palaces, is a title of some Sāmanta ladies. Kōvilagam is the usual term for the house of a Rāja or Tirumalpād, and Kōilpantāla is recorded, from Travancore, as a synonym for Kōil Tamburān. The Nāttukōttai Chettis have exogamous septs, or kōils, named after temples, e.g., Māthur kōil.
Kōya.—The land and boat-owning class of Muhammadans in the Laccadive islands. The name is said to be a corrupt form of Khōja, meaning a man of distinction. Māppillas use Kōya as a suffix to their names, e.g., Hassan Kōya, Mahomed Kōya (see Māppilla).
Kōyappan.—Kōyappan or Kōyavappan are corrupt forms of Kusavan (Malabar potters).
Koyi.—The Koyis, Kois, or Koyas, are a tribe inhabiting the hills in the north of the Godāvari district, and are also found in the Malkangiri tāluk of the Jeypore Zamindari. They are said to belong to the great Gōnd family, and, when a man of another caste wishes to be abusive to a Koyi, he calls him a Gōndia. The Koyi language is said by Grierson to be a dialect of Gōndi. Writing concerning the Koyis of the Godāvari district, the Rev. J. Cain states[18] that “in these parts the Kois use a great many Telugu words, and cannot always understand the Kois who come from the plateau in Bustar. A few years ago, when Colonel Haig travelled as far as Jagdalpuram, the Kois from the neighbourhood of Dummagudem who accompanied him were frequently unable to carry on any conversation with many of the Kois on this plateau. There are often slight differences in the phraseology of the inhabitants of two villages within a mile of each other. When two of my teachers, living not more than a mile apart, were collecting vocabularies in the villages in which they lived, they complained that their vocabularies often differed in points where they expected to find no variety whatever.” A partial vocabulary of the Koyi language is given by the Rev. J. Cain, who notes that all the words borrowed from Telugu take purely Koi terminations in the plural. “Its connection,” he writes, “with the Gond language is very apparent, and also the influence of its neighbour Telugu. This latter will account for many of the irregularities, which would probably disappear in the language spoken by the Kois living further away from the Telugu country.” Mr. G. F. Paddison informs me that all the Gōnds whom he met with in the Vizagapatam district were bholo lōko (good caste), and would not touch pork or mutton, whereas the Koyi shares with the Dōmbs the distinction of eating anything he can get in the way of meat, from a rat to a cow. It is noted by Mr. H. A. Stuart[19] that “the Khonds call themselves Kui, a name identical with Koi or Koya.” And, in 1853, an introduction to the grammar of the Kui or Kandh language was produced by Lingum Letchmajee.[20]
It is recorded by the Rev. J. Cain that “until the tālukās were handed over to British rule, the Bhadrāchallam Zamindar always kept up a troop of Rohillās, who received very little pay for their services, and lived chiefly by looting the country around. In attendance upon them were one hundred Kois, and one hundred Mādigas. Twenty-five Koi villages form a samutū, and, in the Bhadrāchallam tālukā, there are ten samutūs. In the territory on the opposite side of the river, which also belonged to the Ashwa Rau family, there were ten samutūs. Each samutū was bound in turn to furnish for a month a hundred Kois to carry burdens, fetch supplies, etc., for the above-mentioned Rohillās. During the month thus employed they had to provide their own batta (subsistence money). The petty Zamindars of Albaka, Cherla, Nagar, Bejji and Chintalanada, likewise had their forces of Nāyaks and Kois, and were continually robbing and plundering. All was grist which came to their mill, even the clothes of the poor Koi women, who were frequently stripped, and then regarded as objects of ridicule. The Kois have frequently told me that they could never lie down to rest without feeling that before morning their slumbers might be rudely disturbed, their houses burnt, and their property all carried off. As a rule, they hid their grain in caves and holes of large trees.” It is recorded, in the Vizagapatam Manual, that, in 1857, the headman of Koratūru, a village on the Godāvari river, was anxious to obtain a certain rich widow in marriage for his son. Hearing, however, that she had become the concubine of a village Munsiff or Magistrate of Buttayagūdem, he attempted, with a large body of his Koi followers, to carry her off by force. Failing in the immediate object of his raid, he plundered the village, and retreated with a quantity of booty and cattle.
Those Koyis, the Rev. J. Cain writes, who live in the plains “have a tradition that, about two hundred years ago, they were driven from the plateau in the Bustar country by famine and disputes, and this relationship is also acknowledged by the Gutta Kois, i.e., the hill Kois, who live in the highlands of Bustar. These call the Kois who live near the Godāvari Gommu Kois and Mayalotīlu. The word Gommu is used to denote the banks and neighbourhood of the Godāvari. Thus, for instance, all the villages on the banks of the Godāvari are called Gommu ūllu. Mayalotīlu means rascal. The Gutta Kois say the lowland Kois formerly dwelt on the plateau, but on one occasion some of them started out on a journey to see a Zamindar in the plains, promising to return before very long. They did not fulfil their promise, but settled in the plains, and gradually persuaded others to join them, and at times have secretly visited the plateau on marauding expeditions.... The Kois regard themselves as being divided into five classes, Perumbōyudu, Madogutta, Perēgatta, Mātamuppayo, and Vidogutta.” The Rev. J. Cain states further that “the lowland Kois say that they are divided into five tribes, but they do not know the first of these. The only names they can give are Pāredugatta, Mundegutta, Peramboyina, and Wikaloru, and these tribes are again sub-divided into many families. The members of the different tribes may intermarry, but not members of the same tribe.”
It is recorded by Mr. F. R. Hemingway[21] that “exogamous septs, called Gattas, occur in the tribe. Among them are Mūdō (third), Nālō (fourth) or Parēdi, Aidō (fifth) or Rāyibanda, Ārō (sixth), Nutōmuppayō (130th), and Perambōya. In some places, the members of the Mūdō, Nālō, and Aidō Gattas are said to be recognisable by the difference in the marks they occasionally wear on their foreheads, a spot, a horizontal, and a perpendicular line respectively being used by them. The Ārō Gatta, however, also uses the perpendicular line.” It is further noted by Mr. Hemingway that the Rācha or Dora Koyas consider themselves superior to all other sub-divisions, except the Oddis (superior priests).
It is noted by the Rev. J. Cain that at Gangōlu, a village about three miles from Dummagudem, “live several families who call themselves Bāsava Gollavandlu, but on enquiry I found that they are really Kois, whose grandfathers had a quarrel with some of their neighbours, and separated themselves from their old friends. Some of the present members of the families are anxious to be re-admitted to the society and privileges of the neighbouring Kois. The word Bāsava is commonly said to be derived from bhāsha, a language, and the Gollas of that class are said to have been so called in consequence of their speaking a different language from the rest of the Gollas. A small but well-known family, the Matta people, are all said to have been originally Erra Gollas, but six generations ago they were received into the Koi people. Another well-known family, the Kāka people, have the following tradition of their arrival in the Koi districts. Seven men of the Are Kāpulu caste of Hindus once set out on a journey from the neighbourhood of Warangal. Their way led through dense jungle, and for a very long time they could find no village, where they and their horses could obtain food and shelter. At length they espied a small hut belonging to a poor widow, and, riding up to it, they entered into conversation with her, when they learned that the whole country was being devastated by a nilghai (blue bull: Boselaphus tragocamelus), which defied all attempts to capture it. In despair, the king of the country, who was a Koi of the Ēmu family, had promised his youngest daughter in marriage to any man who would rid the country of the pest. Before very long, the youngest of the Kāpus was out wandering in the neighbouring jungle, and had an encounter with the formidable beast, which ran at him very fiercely, and attempted to knock him down. The young man raised a small brass pot, which he was carrying, and struck the animal so forcible a blow on the head that it fell dead on the spot. He then cut off its tail, nose, and one ear, and carried them away as trophies of his victory; and, having hidden his ring in the mutilated head of the animal, he buried the body in a potter’s pit close to the scene of the encounter. He and his elder brothers then resumed their journey, but they had not gone far before they received news from the widow that the potter, hearing of the death of the animal, had gone to the king with the tidings, and asserted that he himself was the victor, and was therefore entitled to the promised reward. The king, however, declined to comply with his request, unless he produced satisfactory evidence of the truth of the story. The real victor, hearing all this, bent his steps to the king’s court and asserted his claim, showing his trophies in proof of his statements, and requesting the king to send and dig up the carcase of the animal, and see whether the ring was there or not. The king did so, and, finding everything as the claimant had asserted, he bestowed his daughter on him, and assigned to the newly married couple suitable quarters in his own house. Before very long, the next elder brother of the bridegroom came to pay him a visit, riding in a kachadala, i.e., a small cart on solid wooden wheels. He found all the city in great trouble in consequence of the ravages of a crow with an iron beak, with which it attacked young children, and pecked out their brains. The king, deeply grieved at his subjects’ distress, had it proclaimed far and wide that the slayer of this crow should receive in reward the hand of his youngest remaining daughter. The young man had with him a new bamboo bow, and so he fitted an arrow to the string, and let fly at the crow. His aim was so good that the crow fell dead at once, but the force of the blow was so great that one of the wings was driven as far south as the present village of Rekapalli (wing village), its back fell down on the spot now occupied by Nadampalli (loin or back village), its legs at Kālsāram (leg village), and its head at Tirusapuram (head village), whilst the remainder fell into the cart, and was carried into the presence of the king. The king was delighted to see such clear proofs of the young man’s bravery, and immediately had the marriage celebrated, and gave the new son-in-law half the town. He then made an agreement with his sons-in-law and their friends, according to which they were in future to give him as many marriageable girls as could be enclosed and tied up by seven lengths of ropes used for tying up cattle, and he was to bestow upon them as many as could be tied up by three lengths. In other words, he was to receive seventy children, and to give thirty, but this promise has never been fulfilled. The victor received the name of Kāka (crow), and his descendants are called the Kāka people.”
The Koyis of the Godāvari district are described in the Manual as being “a simple-minded people. They look poor and untidy. The jungles in which they reside are very unhealthy, and the Kois seem almost to a man to suffer from chronic fever. They lead an unsophisticated, savage life, and have few ideas, and no knowledge beyond the daily events of their own little villages; but this withdrawal from civilised existence is favourable to the growth of those virtues which are peculiar to a savage life. Like the Khonds, they are noted for truthfulness, and are quite an example in this respect to the civilised and more cultivated inhabitants of the plains. They call themselves Koitors, the latter part of which appellation has been very easily and naturally changed by the Telugu people, and by the Kois who come most closely into contact with them, into Dorala, which means lords; and they are always honoured by this title in the Godāvari district. [The Rev. J. Cain expresses doubts as to the title Dora being a corruption of tor, and points out that it is a common title in the Telugu country. Some Koyis on the Bastar plateau call themselves Bhūmi Rāzulu, or kings of the earth.] The villages are small, but very picturesque. They are built in groups of five or six houses, in some places even a smaller number, and there are very rarely so many as ten or fifteen. A clearing is made in the jungle, and a few acres for cultivation are left vacant round the houses. In clearing away the wood, every tree is removed except the ippa (Bassia latifolia) and tamarind trees, which are of the greatest service to the people on account of their fruit and shade. The Kois do not remain long in the same place. They are a restless race. Four years suffice to exhaust the soil in one locality, and they do not take the trouble to plough deeper, but migrate to another spot, where they make a fresh clearing, and erect a new village. Their huts are generally covered with melons and gourds, the flowing tendrils of which give them a very graceful appearance, but the surrounding jungle makes them damp and unhealthy. When the cultivation season is over, and the time of harvest draws on, the whole of the village turns out by families, and lives on the small wooden scaffoldings erected in the fields, for the purpose of scaring away the wild animals and birds, which come to feed on the ripening grain. Deer and wild pigs come by night to steal it, and herds of goats by day. Tigers and cheetas (leopards) often resort to the fields of Indian corn, and conceal themselves among the lofty plants. Poorer kinds of grain are also grown, such as millet and maize, out of which the people make a kind of porridge, called java. They likewise grow a little cotton, from which they make some coarse cloth, and tobacco. The ippa tree is much prized. The Koyis eat the flowers of this tree, which are round and fleshy. They eat them either dried in the sun, or fried with a little oil. Oil both for lights and for cooking is obtained from the nut, from which also an intoxicating spirit is extracted.” I gather that the Koyis further use the oil for anointing the hair, whereas, in Kurnool, the forest officers barter with the Chenchus for the fruits, which they will part with, as they do not require them for the toilette or other purpose.
The cultivation of the Koyis has been described as “of the simplest, most unprofitable kind. A piece of jungle is selected, and all the trees, except the fruit-bearing ones, are cut down and burned, the ashes being used for manure. Then, without removing the stumps or further clearing, the land is scratched along the top, and the seed sown. For three or four years the natural fertility of the soil yields them a crop, but then, when the undergrowth begins to appear and the soil to be impoverished, being too lazy to plough and clean it properly or to give it manure, they abandon it, and the land again becomes scrub jungle.”